Bacon-Wrapped Mini Salmon Cakes with Asparagus

Yeah, okay. That’s a really long title. What I wanted to call these things was LITTLE BITES OF AWESOME but, alas, that doesn’t query well in search engines.

I have to give credit where credit is due. This recipe is entirely my original creation. No one else’s. However, it was Dan from At Darwin’s Table who got my wheels a’turning to come up with this.

He commented on my Bacon and Crab Stuffed Mushrooms but said he was going to try a different fish instead of crab. I suggested a few other flaky, light white fishes I thought would work – sole, bassa – and then I mentioned salmon. And then I thought: Bacon + Salmon = HELLSYEAH.

I stock up on frozen wild-caught salmon whenever I see it on sale. So I always have some on hand. And we ALWAYS have bacon; there’s no primal household that doesn’t I’d argue. I checked the fridge for whatever else I could finagle. I saw the bag of leftover raw asparagus from when Mike made these easy peasy appetizers the other day for football:

Prosciutto-wrapped asparagus appetizers

I know asparagus and salmon are good together either cooked or raw (sushi), so why not figure out a way and put them all together? And these were born:

Bacon-Wrapped Mini Salmon Cakes with Asparagus

What you need:

10 oz salmon

coconut/olive oil

pat of butter

1 tbsp finely diced onion

1 garlic clove, finely diced

2/3 c. pine nuts

1 tbsp mayo

1 tsp Parmesan cheese

1 tsp dijon mustard

1 tsp old bay seasoning

1 tbsp fresh chives

1 egg white

bunch fresh asparagus
thick cut bacon

What you do:

In a pan, cook the salmon with the coconut oil (you can use olive oil), breaking apart as you cook.

When this is finished stick in a bowl in the fridge to cool down.

Either in a blender or a food processor, blend the pine nuts until they look like this. Thee nuts are very moist and work great as a binder and give the cake a nutty taste.

In another pan, melt butter and add garlic and onions and cook until trnaslucent.

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15 Comments

Honestly if I could fucking swear I would. This just looks like every dream come true. I wonder if I could bathe in them. YUM! This is going on my to do list, and this recipe will be getting linked!!!!!

I just made these tonight and they're really good! I used pistachios, though, because I don't like pine nuts, and I used the yolk as well because pistachios are a little drier than pine nuts, plus I'm too lazy to separate. I also used canned smoked salmon since that's all I had. :-) Love the texture!

I’ve made these several times now. So delicious! Last time, feeling a bit lazy, we just chopped up the asparagus and some bacon I’d already cooked and frozen, added them to the salmon mixture, and made into patties. Just as tasty and a little less work.

I can’t believe how good these were. I adapted the recipe a bit, based on the ingredients I had in the house. I’ve had two cans of salmon that I was really nervous to use, as I’d never used canned salmon before. This was the perfect way to use it up and I was impressed with the flavor profile! I also used coconut flour instead of pine nuts, but I felt that they held together pretty well.

We actually had enough ingredients to make it for dinner last night and then again for brunch today. It’s my new favorite meal. Thank you so much for such an awesome recipe!